looks like barnacle's great grandson and lori writes "way too early" has been pretty nicd dating from my couch. >> you probably chose joe and mika if you had the choice. barnicle can take me to a ball game and buy me hot dogs any time. i think i'll have to set that up. "morning joe" starts right now. this story has got everything. a decorated war hero who's now america's spymaster, has an affair with his own sexy biographer who thinks the spymaster is stepping out on her with a second girlfriend, so she sends an e-mail from a secret account saying step off or i will cut, bi-a tchlbi-atch. another man has sent thousands of e-mails to a second woman.

it isn't just a triangle, it's a pentagon. that general down there, he is the top commander of our war in afghanistan. afghanistan, really? please. if our troops were really still fighting in afghanistan, don't you think we'd be hearing about that on the news instead of all this bull [ bleep ]? >> good morning. it is friday. it is friday, november 16th. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, we have the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass. richard. >> good morning. >> chairman of deutsche incorporated, donny deutsch. get over it. okay? get over it. >> get over what? what are you talking about? >> all of you are in here. in washington, msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst, mark halperin. >> richard's in here? >> i don't know why. i'm serious. what's going on? also, look at this cast we have today, the author of "thomas jefferson, the art of power,"

historian jon meacham. is meacham here? meacham, look at him. >> lots of books. >> and willie, congratulations on your newest honor. >> thank you. are you in nashville, jon meacham? >> i'm in washington. going to be in nashville tomorrow. >> he needs a pipe in that setting. >> yes, he should, and a fireplace. >> you're saying donny's milking this thing. >> we talked about it for ten minutes. we got on the set and donny's, like, can we do this again today? >> unfortunately, joe and i are on what's called the decaying page. guys falling apart. we're on the presidential page. >> you look good. >> right next to brad pitt. >> that kind of ruins it. okay. well, there you go. >> okay, take that down, please. >> oh! >> there we go. >> it's too early for this. >> it is. take that down. i'm sick. so mika -- >> whatever. >> mitt romney's still in the

news. >> yeah, thank you. he is the gift that just keeps on giving. but i think at this point -- >> time to go away. >> yeah. we'll start there because actually, the response to it is probably the beginning of maybe something for the party. the republican party. we begin this morning with a growing number of leading republicans trying to distance themselves from mitt romney's recent comments where he argued that president obama won re-election by offering, quote, gifts or government services to minorities and young voters. >> what the president -- president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. >> okay. we're going to now show the response to this from some leading republicans. the only thing i'll say is where was this along the way? >> right. it was there. i mean, it was there.

>> it's not like this is a revelation about romney. >> yeah, the 47% quote. he actually believed it. >> okay. >> and he wasn't just doing analysis. that was his, i would say, twisted view of what he views conservatism to be. that you write off 47% of the population and just try to squeeze out 3% that's undecided. it's just sick. >> i know this is going to sound snarky, but i think it's a lot easier to say now, but it is being said. louisiana governor bobby jindal came out strongly against romney's comments wednesday and continued yesterday. >> this is unhealthy. this is not where the republican party needs to go. if you want voters to like you, the first thing you've got to do is to like them first. it's certainly not helpful to tell voters that you think their votes were bought. that's certainly not a way to show them that you respect them, you like them. we need to stop talking down to voters. i truly believe people on food

stamps, on government assistance, don't want to be there. they're there because they don't have the ability to get better paying jobs. it's our responsibility to give them the education, give them the opportunities to have a better quality of life. >> then we have senator marco rubio of florida who offered a carefully worded reaction to romney, telling "politico," quote, i don't want to rebut him point by point. i would just say to you, i don't believe that we have millions and millions of people in this country that don't want to work. okay. and former mississippi governor, haley bar rour barbour, saying party needs to do some soul searching. >> we've got to give our political organizational activity, you know, a very serious proctology exam. we need to look everywhere is my point. >> yeah. you know what?

i will say -- and i don't hand you compliments often -- but you've been saying this during the primary process, it started. and now it seems to me that it's great to hear these gentlemen coming forward and speaking truth to what mitt romney said. but it's just too easy right now. it should have been done in the primary process. >> it's just like when i was talking about people in the conservative entertainment complex talking in ways that we'll never win the suburbs of philadelphia, bucks county, pennsylvania, or the i-4 corridor. in this case, donny deutsch, i said all along that mitt romney's biggest problem wasn't that he was too conservative. it's that he didn't understand conservatism like margaret thatcher, the shopkeeper's daughter, understood conservatism or ronald reagan, the alcoholic son that grew up in middle america who actually believed, like i believe, like a lot of conservatives believe that if you want to help everybody, if you want to help the 100%, what you want to do is

you want to fight hard for their individual free am do doms and unshackle them from regulations from high taxes, from a centralized state, and that's the best way to move forward. we can have a debate over whether that's right or wrong. the problem is, we didn't have that debate this time because mitt romney's view was such an insulated view of a guy who grew up rich and grew up in this insular world where his father ran car companies and was governor of michigan. >> this is a pivot point for the republican party. i think bobby jindal probably said it best. you have to turn -- you have to marry conservatism and pop y lyh populism. we helped the little guy because that's the america dream. it's not the opposite as far as entitlements and victims. that's a pivot point. and the republicans that get it are going to be part of a new

branded -- i was arguing yesterday on the show about the republicans need to rebrand themselves. of course they do. a brand is a set of values and how you articulate those values and the attributes you assign it. and it's very, very, very clear, the demographic fait accompli of where this world is going, until you can shift what is the current view of republicanism into what i'll call the pop yewist articulation of conservatism, they will not get there. >> willie, it all starts at the top. it really does. in presidential years, for better or for worse, the guy or woman you nominate to run your party, to be the presidential candidate is one that runs the party. and we had a guy in the republican party that just did not think like thatcher, did not think like reagan, did not think that. >> it's interesting that all these governors held their tongues through the campaign. it's not just bobby jindal, it was bob mcconnell of virginia yesterday saying we need to be more flexible on the issues of

taxes. haley bar rour said bour said, purists. i guess the question i have is how do you win general elections without abandingenioning your c principles? how do you move yourself to get 50% of the electorate? >> it's actually healthy. what you want to see is a republican debate about ideas. you can't have the lessons of why romney lost be about quote, unquote, gifts. you can't have it all be about ground game and political tactics. that's a cop-out. it's like an army after losing a war and you chalk it up to this or that sideshow. the republicans have to have a serious debate. what is their view of the economy given what's going on? what is the proper role of government in this society? what is the role of the united states in the world? what did we learn from iraq and afghanistan? let's have a serious debate, but let's not chalk it up to this or that democratic tactic or this or that failure to get the vote

out. that's avoiding any serious learning of lessons here. >> let's go to jon meacham. >> i would love to ask what thomas jefferson would do, mika. >> what would jefferson do? having said that, also how do we -- what's the moving forward conversation to have? because this, again, just shows how bad the candidate was. or how much he didn't fit the conversation that needed to be had all along, which, by the way, was a failure on both sides in the campaign. jon. >> you know, what's fun sometimes in life and in politics is when you can make a vice a virtue. and in this case, the fact that romney was not a good candidate and has now said this, which totally ratifies his 47% comment, those of us who wanted to think that he was just talking about tactics, that it was late at night and he didn't really mean it, well, we were wrong. he really meant it. and i think the republicans to some extent are lucky in that they now have a total, to use

donny's term, words, by the way, i never thought i would say, in that order. >> yeah. >> it is a pivot point. you now have a nominee who is absolutely embodies and has now said again something that you can play off of. you can define yourself against. you can become an -- i would try to use a term, something like i'm a 53% republican. something that says you're not, you know, we're not that anymore. and then what richard says is exactly right. you can't just be packaging. it's got to be what's in the package. >> well, to that point about being a 53% republican, joe, you actually have to really be one, though. you have to really be one. >> you actually have to believe it. i'm not a 53% republican. i'm a 100% republican. tom coburn is a 100% republican. steve largent when he was in congress, 100% republican. matt salmon back in congress, a

100% republican. you remember back in 1994, we got into congress. we were conservatives, but we were all populists. and we constantly were doing battle with what we called the thurston howell iii wing of the republican party. i thought that wing was dead. it is hard to imagine listening again this morning to mitt romney's statement that this party, two years after a tea party revolution that led to the largest legislative landslide in american history nominated a thurston howell iii republican to be their standard bearer. it's just shocking. >> well, it's not so much unlike 1994, joe, because that's another huge republican congressional win that was also fueled by populism. i think there's no doubt that the republicans react to the macro lessons for their brand and for the experience of 2012 are going to be looking for leaders who are more populists.

you can't just wait for the presidential campaign because it's too far down the road. there are lots of political battles between now and then. he'll be looking for somebody like bobby jindal who has a lot of strengths, one is he does have a populist streak, an andy washington streak, and focus on the real lives of real people. and i think what's so damaging for a lot of republicans about romney's comments is once again he's talking in a way that's narrow and that's not talking about things in a populist way but more the way you talk if you are at the yacht club with thurston howell. >> yeah. every time we talk about jon huntsman, we have idiots -- and i'll call them idiots -- that say oh, you're a rhino for even suggesting -- suggesting jon huntsman would have been a good candidate when everybody from erick erickson to myself said, as a matter of fact, it's just a fact, he had the most conservative voting record of anybody that ran. the most conservative record as a public leader, of anybody that

ran. you mow what else he talked about, donny deutsch? unlike barack obama, unlike mitt romney, unlike newt gingrich, unlike herman cain, unlike anybody, jon huntsman was the only guy that understood this populist strain of the republican party. he talked about breaking up the banks. government's too big. our banks are too big. our military industrial complex is too big. we talked about it here all the time. you know, that's that populist strain. why didn't people talk about breaking up the banks? >> i'll tell you another thing that he had that actually worked against him that will now be price of entry. and it's called compassion. you know, his tone did not have the vitriol that the other candidates had. >> by the way, they called him a rhino, and this is style over substance time and time again. if you don't hate, then you are, by the entertainment, the conservative entertainment complex, this must mean you're a rhino. if you don't hate, this must mean you are not sufficiently

conservative. if you don't hate, you're not good enough to be in our party. no. they're in the losing party. they're on the loser side of history. they are finished. they are finished with having any impact on this party moving forward. >> so the very thing that was price of entry, the fist pounding, the anger, the vitriol is the opposite now. if there is not a compassionate streak -- and you can't fake it. it's interesting, the contrast of jindal and rubio. jindal did the hard pivot. and he had the conservative populist message, and it felt compassionate. rubio, it was just -- blah, blah, blah. so to me, to your point, to huntsman, the very thing that worked against him will now work for the candidates. >> what does it tell you, joe, that it wasn't just the conservative entertainment complex, it was the voters. jon huntsman could not get above 3% in the primary. >> he ran a lousy campaign. i mean, he's responsible in the end for not carrying that message forward. but you know what? more people other than erick

erickson on the conservative blogosphere and conservative publication should have picked up that fact. he ran a lousy campaign early on. if he runs again, maybe he'll run a better campaign. but i think also, though, he didn't -- he was not sufficiently angry enough in this environment that the primary process was fought in. he wasn't anti-intellectual enough. >> and downplayed his conservatism. >> that was the biggest mistake. he downplayed his conservatism from the very beginning. and i want to say again, mark halperin, the anti-intellectualism in the republican party over the past decade has been growing. that's another thing bobby jindal has been talking about. that's got to change. that's got to change. we not only have to win over hispanics, we've got to win over educated hispanics. educated african-americans. educated white people. educated people of all races with ph.d.s, an area we've been

losing for decades. >> and joe, there's another issue that i know you think a lot about and thought a lot about that huntsman also talked about which is afghanistan and ending the war. that's another populist issue that i think republicans missed in 2012. the president was for winding down the war. you had others who didn't run that thought that that was an issue to tap into across the board populists including a lot of the groups you just talked about. that was an issue that would have surprised voters. that's one of the things that people criticized the republicans who ran for, no deviation from the expected orthodoxy. and if you do that as a party, if you rethink things and lead, you can cut across voting groups, you can reach well-educated people, less well-educated people. high income/low income. if you've got an issue that's bold and brave, you didn't see that from republicans on dealing with the banks and other issues where the common thread would be populism. >> issues that would have been a real match for president obama.

>> really quickly, one thought. i would challenge everybody to close their eyes -- >> is this about the "people" magazine thing? let's not go there. >> by the way, jon meacham just quoted me, a pulitzer prize winner. it has nothing to do with sexiest man. >> that may be my 47%. >> that's your waterloo, my man. look it up. >> if you close your eyes and think of a progressive or liberal or conservative, the vision -- >> can i do this with my eyes open? >> the vision of the conservative now has to feel nicer. i know that sounds silly. conservative has always had a hard edge to it. >> it was all good till you said that, but whatever. the growing crisis between israel and the palestinians, we want to get to this story, gaza is on the verge of all-out war developing over the past 24 hours in response to repeated rocket attacks from hamas operatives. israel has begun mobilizing some 30,000 reserve troops including armored vehicles and tanks. overnight the fighting did not let up. explosions rocked gaza city as

israeli warplanes pounded hamas targets. hamas vowing retaliation for the death of its military chief two days ago is escalating missile attacks deeper into israel. the jerusalem post reports that israeli air force has fired a rock near the home of hamas's prime minister. no one was reportedly injured. for the first time since the gulf war, more than 20 years ago, air raid sirens were triggered in the commercial capital of tel aviv, sending residents running for cover. so far the long-range missiles fired from gaza have landed without damage there. yesterday israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu warned that the military operation could significantly widen. >> no government would tolerate a situation where nearly one-fifth of its people live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire. and israel will not tolerate this situation. i hope that hamas and the other terror organizations in gaza got the message.

if not, israel is prepared to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people. >> while egypt's prime minister visited gaza today in a show of solidarity with hamas, israel agreed to pause attacks, but we keep hearing more coming from there, richard, your thoughts. >> look, it's possible this escalates, but it's hard for me to see how anybody benefits. israel got out of gaza -- israel's a first-world country, a first-world economy. it doesn't want rockets raining down in the middle of tel aviv. it would be like rockets raining down on rockefeller center. israel's way beyond this and wants to move beyond this. also, this brings into play the israeli/egyptian treaty and jordan. everything now -- >> so the question is, why did hamas choose to start firing rockets into israel the way they did? >> i think for hamas -- >> to start this? >> i think for hamas, it's station identification. this is what hamas does. this is how it differentiates

itself but hasn't been able to deliver the goods at home to the palestinian people in gaza. this galvanizes its space. it shows the hamas, quote, unquote, is doing something. it has credentials unlike the west bank palestinians who are seen as corrupt and not really offering a palestinian future. >> so they just started firing missiles into israel. >> it's station identification for hamas. and also, hamas now is less isolated. a year ago, they would shoot missiles -- two years ago -- the hosni mubaraks and others would a stop. now suddenly hamas is close to egypt. >> so how do we pressure morsi and egypt? they want billions from us. they want billions from the imf. >> well, that's the way you do it. is that the egyptians also have a stake in this not getting out of hand. israel doesn't want the relationship to break down totally. egypt doesn't want to forfeit its relationship with us, $4.8 billion sitting there in the imf, the $2 billion annually.

>> the imf's not going to give them the money if they are seen as being sponsors of hamas, are they? >> that's why this is the balancing act. what we have to make clear to the egyptians is you're no longer simply a party. you're now the government. you're going to rein in people over whom you have some influence. >> is the president passing that message along to morsi and the egyptians? >> i would hope so. the age of unconditional american relationships with a lot of these regimes is over. remember a few months ago during the campaign, the president was asked in the telemundo interview, he was asked, do you consider egypt an ally or adversary and he basically said neither? what we've done, whether it's pakistan, egypt, conditional relationships, it's going to depend on how they treat their own people, whether they act responsibly beyond their borders. this is exactly the future of the middle east. >> so i just want to clarify, there was no triggering event specifically this time for hamas to start raining missiles down? >> no. >> on israeli civilians? >> no, this has been building up

over the last few weeks and months. several hundred rockets were launched. this is a self-definition thing for hamas. >> yeah. coming up, we have a great show ahead. new jersey governor chris christie will be here on set. also, vice chair of the senate intelligence committee, senator saxby chambliss. actor bradley cooper will join us. and documentary filmmaker ken burns. up next, mike allen with the top stories in the "politico playbook." but first, bill karins with a check on the forecast. bill. >> hey, mika, good friday morning. this weekend forecast shaping up to be a nice one. a little chillier than some of us would like, but it will be dry just about everywhere. as far as today goes, the areas still cleaning up from hurricane sandy, no storms in the cards this weekend or even next week. that's great. a cold morning just like yesterday. the afternoon will be okay. temperatures getting up into the 40s and 50s in almost all locations in the northeast. now, the troublesome weather over the next week is going to be all located on the west coast. just had some rain move through los angeles, which is always a big deal. that will continue through the

ho morning. some of that rain in the bay throughout your morning rush ho hour. here's the l.a. forecast, one of the worst in the nation, a chance of rain three days in a row. very rare in southern california. let me take you through the next three days. your entire weekend forecast. friday will look like saturday and saturday like sunday. there's really no changes. the wet weather remains on the west coast. and on saturday, we should get a lot more sunshine than today in areas of the northeast. and sunday is more or less the same. so no complaints. we're getting a break from mother nature after she was very cruel to us over the last two weeks, especially on the eastern seaboard. nice shot there, looks like some partial sunshine for areas around new york city this morning. you're watching "morning joe." we're brewed by starbucks. [ male announcer ] families grow up

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time now to take a look at the "morning papers." "the houston chronicle," oil giant bp has been handed the largest ever criminal fine in u.s. history. in connection with the 2010 oil rig explosion that killed 11 people and triggered a massive spill in the gulf of mexico. two employees face involuntary manslaughter charges. bp will plead guilty to the deaths and for lying over how much oil was really gushing out of the deep water horizon. bp made a record $25.8 billion in profits last year. "the indianapolis star," hostess is expected to announce today whether it will shutter operations permanently. the move would result in the loss of 18,000 jobs, and the company could begin to liquidate itself in bankruptcy court. right now striking workers are preventing production over their objections to a contract offering benefit and wage cuts. hostess makes iconic baked goods from twinkies to ding dongs to wonder bread, and it could all go away today.

>> be careful what you -- this is a great company. i know you don't love ding dongs and twinkies, but many people do. >> a lot of jobs at stake. >> yes. >> i know it's complicated, for sure. no snarky comments here. "the wall street journal," google is prepping a new mapping app that will work on apple's iphone. apple stopped providing the app on its latest smartphone in favor of its own mapping program, a move that drew heavy criticism, especially when it was revealed the app contained inaccurate data and helped lead to the firing of apple software chief. and on the cover of "parade" magazine, they were just here at rockefeller plaza. >> oh, wow. >> british boy band one direction. donny deutsch was out there with the girls. >> willie geist, it was great. >> did you dance? >> my daughter danced. >> oh, cute. >> she was very excited. donny was dancing. >> my daughters. >> i bet they loved them. >> they were, like -- >> i bit they were insane. >> by the way, willie's little boy was there, true story.

the most adorable little boy. >> he is. >> how old is he now? >> 3. george. >> a month ago he went to -- whose wedding? >> my sister. >> your sister's wedding. was wearing a tuxedo, decided he loved the black tie look. he's just not -- he was rocking the -- >> one direction. >> in a tux. >> in a tux. 7:30 in the morning. >> the cutest thing i've ever seen. >> he puts it on, this looks great. >> this is the hot look. >> he's dapper. >> greatest thing i've ever seen. >> like a young sinatra. with us now, chief white house correspondent for "politico," mr. mike allen has a look at the "playbo "playbook." >> happy friday. >> there it is, happy friday. we can begin our weekend. you can help us pick up on this. the way republican governors in and the republican party at large has now sort of reacted to mitt romney's candidacy. plotting a comeback, where do they begin, mike? >> well, one of the megatrends that came out of this election is the empowerment of younger republican voices, voices we

haven't been focused on because the leaders blew it across the board. so governor susanna martinez of new mexico is one of those. she's out at the republican governors association in las vegas where we saw that little clip of governor bobby jindal of louisiana. and she, too, is saying that the party needs to attack immigration, to find a legal way for people to become citizens. she also really went after the romney remarks, saying this is the kind of thing that set us back. and she made a very interesting point. she said we don't need to be talking to hispanics. we need to be asking them, how can we earn your vote? what can we be doing differently? and so this, on paper, was a status quo election. you have a democrat in the white house, democrats running the senate, republicans running the house. but i have never seen so much power moving around, so much molten power in washington in many, many cycles because on the left, you also have a lot of groups that feel empowered who

worked hard on this election, who are going to be pushing president obama, the climate groups, gay groups, others to be doing their agenda as one member of this democratic coalition said to our maggie abraman. last time it was for history. this time it's personal. >> and mike, on taxes, we mentioned it earlier, governor bob mcdonnell saying we need to soften it with this president if we want to get a larger deal, our position on taxes. will we see a little move back from that grover norquist line? >> this is another fascinating sign of how much the gop is moving. for mississippi governor haley barbour saying republicans need to look at that. we'll see a fairly conciliatory statement. president obama is also going to say he needs to make some tough choices and will compromise. so at the meeting in washington

today, we hear a lot of talk about compromising on both sides. and it's a sign of how they read the electorate. i think it will fade day by day as we get into the heat of negotiations. but coming out of the election, washington sounds extremely differently than it did just a few weeks ago. >> a lot of work to do. mike allen with a look inside the "politico playbook." thanks, mike. >> happy weekend. up next, the knicks undefeated. the knicks are undefeated. a lot of people said they were a fluke, but after last night's win on the road against previously unbeaten san antonio, you can't say that anymore. mike barnicle, brian schactman help us out with sports when "morning joe" comes back. into their work,

their name on the door, and their heart into their community. small business saturday is a day to show our support. a day to shop at stores owned by our friends and neighbors. and do our part for the businesses that do so much for us. on november 24th, let's get out and shop small.

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all right, time for some sports. mike barnicle, cnbc's brian shactman join the table. >> i love that the women had to leave the table to do sports. >> that was voluntary. >> they wanted to. >> alex was drifting us back. >> mika's got more important things to do. so mike barnicle, you called this when we made our picks last week. so did a lot of people. tigers' third baseman miguel

cabrera beat out mike trout for american league mvp. it wasn't as close as some thought it might be. the first triple crown winner in 35 years. 22 first place votes. trout got six. this decision not going to sit well with the moneyball crowd. cabrera had the advantage in batting average, rbis, home runs. trout had the wins in w.a.r.s that measures a player's contribution to a team's record. 10.7 to 6.9. >> i'll tell what you it means, the internals of those statistics means that trout gets on base. he steals second. if miggy got on second, he'd never score. trout would score eight out of times from second base. even though the tigers went to the world series. so there was a big push for trout to get the mvp. >> i was surprised that the number -- the gap was that big.

>> cabrera's a better -- trout's a better baseball player, but you win the triple crown -- >> it's automatic. >> -- you finish in first, you've got to give him the award. >> by the way, trout will be there. what is he, 20, 21? over in the national league, the mvp went to buster posey of the giants, the first national league catcher since johnny bench won it in 1972. take that mvp award. you guys like that one? >> i just want to say one thing. you like this. the red sox did not receive an mvp vote, not one vote, for the first time since 1911. first column was in "the globe" that year, too. >> yeah. wow! >> right out of the box! >> steps right up. >> right out of the box! >> he said 5 bucks if i rip you. >> buster posey, any women about to give birth, you name your son buster, how do you miss with buster? >> second most popular name

behind mike trout. >> mvp and world series title. >> and a leader. let's go to the knicks, donny deutsch. i said they were unbeaten, they actually had one loss. fourth quarter, knicks clawing back from the 12-point deficit. under two to play. j.r. smith with a big three. that gives the knicks a two-point lead. less than a minute left now. raymond felton. can't get it to go. tyson chandler for the follow. knicks come all the way back to win, 104-100. 6-0 for only the second time in the history of the franchise. their other 6-0 start came in '93/'94, the last time they made it to the nba finals. a lot of people said they were a fluke, hadn't played good teams. but you go on the road and beat san antonio, that's a real win. >> i like to kind of frame things. knicks, 6-0, crimson tide loses, same week. >> what? how do i make the connection? >> what are they doing here? >> i don't get it. >> i like to look at trends. i like to kind of -- >> how are they -- i don't see

the -- >> they're both really good things. >> here's another trend, we lost again last career and still won the national championship. there's another trend. >> come on. you've got to have something good. if you pause, it's got to be good. this has got to be a knockout punch. >> what are you talking about? we're going to win the national championship again. you don't need a knockout punch. >> i believe the networks understand people are tired of the s.e.c. i believe you'll see oregon and notre dame. >> i don't know why he's here. because i'm one of the sexiest people. >> you know another trend? donny's not on the show anymore. congratulations. >> who's vandy got this weekend? >> tennessee at home. we haven't beaten them for 20 years. tennessee has not won an s.e.c. game this year. >> let's go, vandy. up next, the must-read opinion pages. we're back in a moment. [ male announcer ] when this hotel added aflac

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welcome back to "morning joe." it's 44 after the hour. and we have a cast of millions with us. today. i want to look at the front page of "the new york post." >> yes, please. >> o's vow to residents, i'll try to make it right. jon meacham, we were talking about this before the election, that when a president comes to a storm-ravaged area, it doesn't matter whether they're a republican or a democrat, they bring a certain authority that can comfort people in a way that little else can do. >> yeah, it goes back to -- there's so many roles to the presidency. you have to be the explainer in chief, you have to be the deal

maker in chief, and you have to be the pastor in chief. it's a role that, you know, fdr was brilliant at playing, and he understood that there was a kind of -- particularly in a culture where the president is so present in everyone's lives because of the media, the idea that he cares about you and is on the ground has even more power than it did when they were even more distant figures. >> mark halperin, the president's been criticized in the past for being a bit remote. there's some nice photos of him with people on staten island. i just wonder, are you hearing on the inside that this re-election has transformed him a bit and that we can expect a different president obama over the next four years, at least stylistically, if not ideologically? >> i think in terms of dealing with disaster, i think he's been a bit underrated in how he's dealt with them from the comforter in chief role, but also from the mechanical role. these are state and local problems to solve for the most

part, but we all agree that most of us do, the federal government has a role. one of the things i think where he's been underrated is picking the right people. fugate is widely considered to be very good at dealing with these things at fema. but you saw in that video shean donovan, the housing secretary, also given high marks for just kind of technical competence, the kind of president excels at. i think the bigger question is will he be a different kind of leader and president in dealing with congress? one thing we haven't talked about is the meeting with kong gre congressional meeting today. it's that kind of setting and the ongoing relationship with boehner and mcconnell because he's going to have to be a different kind of leader with them. he talked about it in the press conference a bit the other day. he needs to reach out to them the way he's reached out to people on staten island and dealt with the two governors, christie and cuomo, who are two pretty demanding guys as well. and based on their public and private comments have been very happy with the president's leadership and his government.

>> i just wonder if it's fair to make a parallel when you look at the president's response to sandy which has had and continues to have just devastating effects on the economy for businesses and the reaction to the bp oil spill which seemed slow in coming because that was devastating as well to a different part of the country. >> he certainly was. he was very slow to respond to people in the gulf coast. >> in terms of appearances. >> i think things have changed, though, over the past couple years. and i suspect that, you know, even the president's closest allies will say that it was a very hard adjustment going from where he had been, a senator with very little experience in washington, to being president of the united states. i think he's -- i think he's learning as he goes. he's four years in. i think we're going to see i think more positive developments over the next four years. >> and richard haass, while we have you here, new head of the communist party in china. talk about what it means.

>> we're talking about the political transition here in the united states. this is the other great political transition in the world. you now have the new leadership of the world's largest country, the world's second largest economy, and what's so interesting about it is how conservative it is. china is in for a rough ride. everyone in this country talks about a rising china, this sense of china's emergence. they don't see it that way. their economy is slowing big time. their entire economic model can't continue to succeed. they can't rely on exports. they've got to stimulate demand. you've got political protests at home, anti-corruption movements. china is battening down the hatches. this is a very conservative leadership. they're answer's not going to be reform, but rather they're going to try to deal with nationalism, potentially by repressing some of it at home. they're going to try to do anti-corruption things, and china may become or continue to be more assertive abroad. this is a different china. it's a china that's in for a much tougher experience at home. and for us, it's going to -- everyone's worried about a rising china. a china that encounters

difficulties domestically could pose a different and in some ways a more difficult set of problems for united states, japan and other countries we're so close to. >> mike barnicle, you are our crime correspondent. what's fbi director mueller saying this morning? this is, of course, the agent that began the cyber investigation that brought down general petraeus and is about to bring down the top general in afghanistan. he sent this picture to jill kelley who then decided to go to him later on to start a cyber investigation because a woman had sent her an e-mail that said nani, nani pooh-pooh. >> i think based on my knowledge of director mueller, he is probably looking at that picture and looking at the fact that that fbi agent cold called a republican congressman to report what was going on. >> just for the record, he sent this, he says, to doz dozens of people as a joke. >> that's supposed to make us

feel better. >> i just said for the record. >> if anthony wiener had only come up with that excuse, he'd still be in congress right now. i tweeted that to all my followers. >> let's wait until all this cools off. they have the ongoing investigation, a month or two down the road. >> yeah. >> let's reassign this agent to, you know, anchorage, alaska, perhaps. >> again, the first sin was the worst, and that is they began the investigation on six e-mails. >> it's scary. >> that were not threatening. that's the point we've been making all week. civil libertarians should be up in arms at the privacy that was violated here by this, this gung ho agent who started this thing and then continued it. i've got a friend in the intel community that says, actually, they probably would have let this go away, but the second this idiot started cold calling members of congress because of his personal vendetta or because he was trying to impress jill kelley who sent it to him. at that point, they really had no choice but to go public with

it. >> well, there's no need for willie and i to live in fear now that our e-mails will be exposed. >> there you go. willie, tell me what's next. >> general petraeus testifying on capitol hill within the hour. still ahead this morning, new jersey governor chris christie will be here. also, actor bradley cooper joins us on set to discuss his new film. it's getting great reviews. here's hoping it goes a little better than one of the last couple of times he was with us. >> and bradley's here to talk today about his latest film. it's called "the a-team." >> as opposed to -- she came up to me and said, so i'm so happy you're part of the a-list? a-list show? >> mika. >> like totally sincere. totally sincere. >> yeah. >> that's fantastic. >> she grew up in a hermetically sealed bubble. >> her mother was a fan of mr. t. [ male announcer ] free windows 8 training from your son.

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welcome back to "morning joe." jon meacham, before we let you go, you're out, obviously, on this big book tour about thomas jefferson. the book is just doing fantastic. incredible reviews. what are people asking you out

at these book events about thomas jefferson? >> you know, there's a real hunger, as you would expect, to say, you know, what can obama learn from jefferson? and is there -- are there lessons back there? and there are some stylistic things. you know, jefferson was brilliant at reaching out in his caucus and across the aisle. i think we are seeing that -- we are hoping there's more of an instinct on obama's part to press forward in a second term by reaching out more. >> all right. very good. >> jon meacham. >> have you sent one to the president yet? >> i have not. i should do that. >> you need to do that, jon. you need to sign it and send it to the president. he's a big reader. >> as ever, you're ahead of me. so i'll do that. thank you. >> all right, jon meacham, the new book, "thomas jefferson: the art of power." when we come back, vice chair of the senate intelligence committee, senator saxby chambliss, also "bloomberg's" josh green on the three factors he says will decide the fiscal cliff. and david gregory joins the set

as well. there's david. >> all right. >> keep it right here on "morning joe." anncr: some politicians seem to think medicare and... social security are just numbers in a budget. well, we worked hard for those benefits. we earned them. and if washington tries to cram decisions about the future... of these programs into a last minute budget deal... we'll all pay the price. aarp is fighting to protect seniors with responsible... solutions that strengthen medicare and... social security for generations to come. we can do better than a last minute deal... that would hurt all of us.

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what the president -- president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition. give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government. and then work very agressively to turn them out to vote. >> how on earth did mitt romney find out about the extraordinary bag of gifts?

what we've got in here. there's something for everybody in this. oh. what did obama give us? oh, a bag of weed. that was nice. oh. food stamp koozie. contraception variety pack. very thoughtful. pinata filled with green cards. >> welcome back to "morning joe." look at this beautiful shot of new york city as the sun comes up. joining us on the set, we still have donny deutsch with us who just made the most unbelievably self-aware comment. do you know what he said? >> what did he say? >> he said if i were 6'5", i would be insufferable. >> like david gregory. >> wait. i'm 6'5" but i'm not insufferable. >> are we suggesting he's not

insufferable? i would say, you know, his upcoming book, david gregory, insufferable at any height. >> i'm trying to decide if it's self-aware or not. >> insufferable. >> joining us on set, we have the moderator of "meet the press," david gregory and senior national correspondent for bloomberg businessweek, joshua green. we just listened to mitt romney explaining why he lost. i think it's not -- i think he actually explained why he lost. >> i think he helped explain why he just didn't get it. david gregory, there are a lot of conservatives from the very beginning and a lot of moderates in the republican party who thought this guy didn't really understand at his core what it meant to be a conservative. "the wall street journal," obviously, editorialized about it time and time again. he just didn't believe like reagan or thatcher or hayek or milton friedman that

conservative wasn't for the rich. it wasn't for the thurston howell iiis, it was for all america. >> and a conservative view and philosophy for governing. necessarily include a lot of people, beyond just white men, that it ought to be an expanding view that new immigrants to the country ought to embrace, that should appeal across ethnic and racial divides. and i mean, i just think that there's a collective sense among those in the party who want to drive forward and say please make it stop. make him stop talking to donors because apparently when he speaks to donors, he just opens up. and that's not really helping. i thought bobby jindal, as an indian-american, really sort of said hey, no. we have to get it. he doesn't get it. what we need to understand is that we need to go in some new directions. we should not be talking about the fact that, you know, obama's giving away things to minorities in the country as a way to get elected. >> look, i agree completely with what jindal said.

i think you do, a lot of us do. again, it's easy now to say that. you've been saying this for two years. about what the party sort of needs to do or responding to certain comments that candidates like mitt romney or during the provide marry primaries certain candidates have said, and you've cut to the chase, but these politicians now saying a lot of great things, but it's easy. >> i mean, i'm glad they're starting to say it. bobby jindal is one of the most intelligent, brightest forward-thinking republicans that we have. he's been muted over the past several years in part because if you're a party leader, if you occupy the space that he does, a lot of times you fall in line behind the nominee. there are a lot of times that mitt romney said a lot of really stupid things, a lot of disappointing things when he showed his weakness when he refused to speak out against a lot of the hate that was spewing from the right-wing entertainment complex. now i think people are freed up a bit more, and i think it's

important. >> don't you think -- you saw this change, you know. george w. bush campaigned in 2000 saying that compassion doesn't end in the banks of the rio grande. he gets more of the hispanic vote. he talks about comprehensive immigration reform. it would have been the first thing he passed, had it not been for 9/11, he tries it in the second term, he fails. then in the run-up, you saw conservatives moving away from immigration. then 2010 happens and you have the tea party movement. they sort of moved away -- became more fiscally conservative. >> it wasn't just republicans that ran away from immigration reform. it was a group of democrats that did as well. but republicans took the hit because of voices from the republican side, especially in the primary, were just incorrigible on so many fronts. >> haley barbour, but first here's bobby jindal on mitt romney's comments. >> this is completely unhelpful. this is not where the republican party needs to go. look, we want -- if you want voters to like you, the first thing you've got to do is to like them first. and it's certainly not helpful

to tell voters that you think their votes were bought. that's certainly not a way to show them that you respect them, you like them. we need to stop talking down to voters. i truly believe people that are on food stamps, on government assistant don't want to be there. they're there because they don't have the ability to get better paying jobs. our responsibility is to adopt policies that grow the economy, give them the education and opportunities to have a better quality of life. >> guys, there is donny deutsch. how about that for the republican brand? how good is that for the republican brand, a guy speaking out like that on his toes, being aggressive. bobby, governor jindal, that's a message we need more republicans to say without fear. >> i said it earlier, coming off of the romney gaffe into jindal, it's the republican pivot point. and i think republicans can either line up -- what was great about what jindal said is we're not going to talk down anymore. it was genuine, it was compassionate. >> you know what else he said that i loved? i'm sure you've had to tell your

advertising people, people that wanted to advertise, you've got to like your people. if you want them to like you, you've got to like them first. it's a great message for them. we republicans too often are at war with, you know, a certain segment of society, maybe the 47%. but mainly at war with the press. i remember early on, i had guys coming up to me, why do you always get such good press, scarborough? you're a right-wing freak. i said, because even my dog knows if i don't like him. i said, you guys walk around with a scowl on your face. you let everybody in the press know that you think they're going to be unfair to you, that they're biased, that you hate them. what do you expect them to do? and that's the chip on the shoulder that we have to lose. >> i'll tell you, it is a style thing. and i said the other day -- and i got mocked, as i often do -- that i think nice is going to be the new black. >> oh, god. >> donny. >> listen to me.

governor chris 'tis tie is comi. what he did was a genuine thing with obama was a seminal moment, how to act, behave, working together is not bad, kindness is not bad, compassion is not bad, and the conservatives, the republicans have to rebrand and no, that isn't the american dream and we are about embracing. >> david gregory, that is what president bush did so well, always talked about being a compassionate conservative, got a large segment of the hispanic population. but republicans have not only lost hiss paj panics and african-americans, but asian-americans as well. >> yeah. yeah. >> we're losing every growing demographic group out there. >> and again, it comes back to what i think was a big debate in the course of this campaign, which is what is the proper role of government, particularly in a distressed economy? and that debate, you know, happened in the course of the campaign. it's going to continue to happen. and that's where i think in this case, romney got on the wrong

side of that argument. >> well, he also opened up an opportunity, though, for the party to push off and move back and embrace a different kind of vision that could have more ele ele electoral success than romney's. i think jindal's pushback is a good example of how the party might use that latest gaffe to kind of move beyond mitt romney. >> if you could play the rubio quote, because that's how not to do it. very interesting. this is somebody who's not getting it. >> he's being very careful. i'll read rubio's quote. then i'm going to play haley barbour. this is senator marco rubio of florida who is careful in his wording. he tells "politico," i don't want to rebut him point by point. i would just say to you, i don't believe that we have millions and millions of people in this country that don't want to work. okay. and then former mississippi governor haley barbour suggested the whole republican party -- >> did haley measure his words? >> he thought about it long and

hard and then just went there. take a look. >> we've got to give our political organizational activity, you know, a very serious proctology exam. i think that's the only -- we need to look everywhere is my point. >> everywhere. >> okay. mark halperin. >> well, mika, you made the point that i think is really important, which is a lot of these things might have been better said before the election rather than now. there's an confluence here of events that's helping republicans make the pivot more quickly than they might, which is governor romney said these things just as the republican governors were gathered for their meeting in las vegas, and a lot of leading national reporters were there to amplify and question them. that's lucky for the republicans in the sense that they're getting a chance to respond and try to move up in a new direction. but we've seen this movie before. it's very hard for republicans, after a loss, governors of whatever party loses often try to say you know what?

we're going to be the voices now. we get it. we're going to try to move the party in a different direction. easy to do when they're in vegas by coincidence. very hard for bobby vijjindal a other governors to have a megaphone consistently to try to change the direction. >> i think this is about tone. this is what we keep talking about. the temptation is to say i see what republicans have to do. they have to become more moderate. they have to move toward the democrats. that is not the answer. and i'm sure that's what you would say. this is about rebranding conservatism in a conservative approach to governing. but to being more tolerant, to having a different tone about talking, you know, to immigrants and to other people in the country who are not for them. that's what i think bobby jindal is saying. and that's what i think was really missing. to romney's credit, romney, i know, wanted massive immigration reform before he started running for president. they couldn't reach an agreement. so he then had to go into this primary process where he had to keep moving to the right on immigration and we see the results. >> and he ran away from it.

four years ago -- four years ago i read a book right after the president got elected. i talked about tone. i said we need to be conservative. we need to be conservative on spending money, balancing the budget, fighting wars. we've got to show restraint. but i said we've also got to show restraint in our rhetoric. and it drove so many people crazy. they couldn't do it. so you're right. you want the reagan model. you want to be conservative ideologically, but want to be moderate temperamentally. there's also something important as well, and i can't bring it up enough. david frum calls it the conservative entertainment complex. there were so many times where we were in danger as a party, the primary process, i said it time and again, that it was killing our brand. one week you would have herman cain at the top of the list. the next week you would have sarah palin. the next week you would have rick perry. the next week you would have donald trump. the next week you would have somebody else. who had just never governed effectively. it made our primary process look

like a reality show. every time i criticized a different group, i was blasted not only by people on twitter, but by bloggers and people in the mainstream press. >> you were blasted for saying what these guys are saying now. >> saying now. and then go to the convention. i dared say our convention may not have been the best convention ever. my god, you would have thought that i had knocked over a bust of ronald reagan. i'm not done. i've got a long list here. >> that's your problem. >> this is not about me. this is important to say. nobody was saying this, and they weren't saying this for a reason. right after the convention. i did a series of tweets, huffington post mutt it uput it they said romney's team's in trouble. they need to turn it around. it's slipping out of their grip quickly. they're in trouble. then finally the libyan press conference that he gave that was such a disaster, the next morning, i went out, i said,

this is the worst thing, mark stein at "national review" and all these other people went crazy talking about how i was a rhino and i was this. it was stupidity. then they decided to come at us saying we doctored a tape and obsessed for a week over two seconds where we felt they said ryan, they thought they said romney. so while all of these conspiracy theories are spewing on the right and the conservative entertainment complex, barack obama's team is organizing. and they're targeting. and instead of talking about conspiracies in the media, josh, they're targeting voters in ohio. instead of talking about how the polls are skewed, they're making phone calls. while we are basically in this cocoon where our websites, our tv shows and our radio shows, talk show hosts are telling us, everything's okay. you're going to win. and anybody that says otherwise is just a part of the left-wing

socialist conspiracy. >> i think that's why there was that thunderstruck disbelief among conservatives and apparently among romney himself the day after the election that they had actually lost. they didn't belief it would happen. and i think if romney had had a chance to break free of that entertainment complex, hadn't felt obligated to consistently kind of pander to it in his ineffective style, it would be more like the romney in the first debate who had that broader appeal that you're talking about, he might have been more successful. >> i'm going to save the super pacs $1 billion next round. i'm being completely serious. here's what they should start running now. a series of ads with really different individuals saying, i'm a conservative, and i believe in immigration reform. i'm a conservative, and i believe in helping the little guy that needs the help. i'm a conservative, and continue to redefine conservatism. >> what does it mean to be a conservative in 2013, '14, '15. >> own that. that will set the table for republicans. >> just one caveat, though.

i'm a conservative, and balancing the budget helps the 99%. >> yeah. >> more than the 1%. >> we can write 100 lines about that. yes, yes and yes. >> conservative ideology can be consistent -- >> but the american people don't understand what the word "conservative" means and does not understand the humanity behind it. that's it. >> you have to be able to do that and still have an honest conversation about the realities that we face right now here today in this country. and mark halperin, that would also continue, i'm a conservative, but i want to talk about the big banks. i'm a conservative, but i want to talk about afghanistan and bring all those philosophies to what is actually happening right now. >> it's very easy to criticize mitt romney right now because of where he stands in the party after his loss. the harder thing, which the republicans have not done, we've talked about this so much, is take on the media freak show and the circus. take on the party who doesn't want to be a leader on immigration. you know, people are talking

about immigration now. of course, it seems like republicans are ready to take that on. when there's actual legislation, when you have to join arms with the president and be a leader the way bush was on the issue and senator mccain was for a time on the issue, that's going to be really hard. that's when you've got to take incoming from the right, and it's going to be difficult to do. you take on the big banks, same thing. take on afghanistan. same thing. that's what the party's going to have to do to change its brand and its image. and to be confident that they are standing in the right place to broaden the party rather than to stay narrow. >> by the way, i want everybody to know, to follow up on david gregory's point, i'm not saying default to positions automatically give up on a 35% tax rate because i'll tell you what. i'll just say it right now. if i were in congress, if i were going to give up on a 35% tax rate, the democrats would have to bring a hell of a lot to the table to make me do that. they would have to get past the demagoguery on medicare, get past the demagoguery on social

security, on so many things. and republicans at the same time would have to give up on an endless war in afghanistan that's causing us $2 billion a week. give up on a military industrial economics that is getting more bloated by the day. give up on corporate welfare. you know, so the default position isn't -- you're right -- it's not just hey, let's give up on the bush tax cuts. >> no. >> it's tone and it's balance. >> and that hasn't been said once in the past hour and 20 minutes. >> josh, you're talking about the three questions to ask about the fiscal cliff about this debate. what are they? >> well, to me, the fiscal cliff, it's obviously a big clash between the two parties, but you can break it down into three individual struggles. one involving each of the three key players. for the president, he's won the election, but if we are going to go over the cliff, i think what he's trying to do now is shape public opinion so that if we do, republicans get blamed. i think for john boehner, and you saw this the day after the election with his conciliatory tone, he needs to have that battle with the right wing of his caucus and lead his tea party members kind of out of

this land of make-believe. >> can i ask you a question? the president's not running for re-election. and i've heard him say, we're going to take this fight across the country and go after the republicans. there's not a damn election for two years. what good does it do the president if americans blame the republicans? we're still going over the cliff. >> the good it does the president is that we go over the cliff and democrats, including in the white house, believe that if they shape public opinion, the furor would be so intense that everyone's tax rate's going up, that republicans would not be able to hold out more than a week or two. and the example you saw that before was the last extension of the payroll tax cuts when house republicans said no, no, no. the weight of public opinion eventually forced him to concede. the presumption this time is that it would be even bigger because everybody's taxes are going up. >> i just think brinksmanship as a strategy is dangerous at this time. the country is so agitated and disgusted with that in washington. i just don't know that that's what they want to do. >> at the same time, how do you avoid it without the kind of

outright concession that obama really wound up making? >> i agree. i think part of it is putting on the table that was attempted before. in other words, if he's got leverage on taxes and i think he does, then he's got to get democrats right with the idea of we're going to do more cuts on medicare beyond the $250 billion that he proposed before. there's got to be other spending cuts that are part of this to make it easier for republicans to come along. and again, i still think he uses the leverage that he has overall on tax rates. you know, to drive that piece of it. >> you know, we've got to look at human nature. and the thing is -- and donny, you know about human nature. you've made a lot of money surveying human nature. everybody looks at the president. the president won this big election. he microtargeted in the swing states. republicans had a horrible message, a horrible brand. the president won big. yea, throw the confetti. you know what? in 1996, bill clinton won big. you know who else won big? me. when i went back in january of

1997, was i willing to work any more after bill clinton won the election than before? no. a lot of republicans that won an election in the house as well. i just say that to say the president can go ahead -- and to follow up on david, he could do brinkmanship if he wants. a lot of these guys have spent the last couple years in the house standing up to the president going after him aggressively. he got re-elected. >> and the government's organized the same way. >> yes. if the president wants to engage in brinksmanship, he can. >> the message they took from their own re-election in their district was go back to washington and fight the president. don't cooperate with what he wants to do. >> right. >> all right, josh -- >> that's what i'm saying, brinksmanship seems to be short-sighted right now. i think instead of flying all across the country and spending taxpayer dollars on air force one and your security detail, could you just try inviting people over to the white house?

>> he's doing that, too. >> and working them the way bill clinton did and the way ronald reagan did. >> he's starting to do that today. >> he's doing it. >> josh green, bloomberg businessweek, can obama persuade the country? can john boehner control the tea party? can mitch mcconnell protect his right flank? thank you very much. >> by the way, he's got to, i guess. he's got an election coming up himself. >> and he had a tough re-election. remember, he had to run six years ago right after the auto bailouts, had a tougher election than he wanted. still ahead, new jersey governor chris christie joins the set. also actor bradley cooper will be here. next, senator saxby chambliss and andrea mitchell. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks.

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♪ i seen your picture ♪ your name in lights above it 26 past the hour. a live look at the white house. joining us now from washington,

nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports," andrea mitchell. and from capitol hill, republican senator from georgia and vice chairman of the senate select committee on intelligence, senator saxby chambliss. the committee is scheduled to hear former cia director david petraeus give his testimony on the benghazi attack later this morning. senator, what will you be looking for? >> well, general petraeus brings a little different perspective to the committee this morning than what we had yesterday. we had the leaders from the intelligence community including acting cia director mike morrell and jim clapper, the dni, and others. the difference that we're looking for today is, general petraeus, obviously, was involved in making some of the key decisions. and we want to know what his thought process was. plus, he's the only member of the leadership team that has been back to libya since september 11. he was just there several days ago. being on the ground, he has a

little bit different perspective. so we're going to be talking with him about that. >> hey, saxby, joe here. good to talk to you again. >> hey, joe. >> you know, susan rice, our u.n. ambassador, has been taking a lot of heat. john mccain, lindsey graham going after her for repeating what the president says was the intel that was available at the time. you're on the committee. can you tell us, was susan rice, from what you know, just repeating what was being told to everybody in washington at the time on what had happened in benghazi? >> well, here's what i think, joe. i think without question, i mean, you know, you've got guys storming a consulate with ak-47s, with rpgs and firing mortars. they knew immediately this was a terrorist attack. there wasn't any question about that. and why the white house didn't come out and say that immediately, i don't know. they tried to soften it somewhat with regard to it was a

spontaneous action that stemmed from a protest. there was a question about whether protesters were there. and five days later, susan rice goes on tv and says that not only was it a protest, but it apparently stemmed from this trailer or this movie that had been shown. and very honestly by that point in time, we were beyond that. so i do think that there were some politics involved in the message that the white house wanted to send. >> so saxby, you obviously hold a very important position on the intelligence committee. the president, the white house is saying that all susan rice was repeating on "meet the press" was what everybody else was being told from america's intelligence community. if susan rice was giving bad information five days later, and if the intelligence community was her source, this is a bigger question about the failings of

the intelligence community. i'm just trying to sort through this. >> yeah. and that's a question that very frankly, joe, we discussed in depth yesterday with the community. we spent an awful lot of time on these talking points. the one thing i can tell you is, it will be a long time before unclassified talking points are put out by the intelligence community. that probably was a mistake. but susan rice was sent to give a white house message. it was not an intelligence community message. and there's a very clear distinction in that. >> andrea, it's david up here in new york. i have a question for you on some of the bigger fights here. i mean, isn't this really beyond the susan rice questions, which i know are going to be litigated fiercely, about what was happening on the ground in terms of protecting u.s. personnel, namely the ambassador, what kind of coordination was there, or was there not between the cia presence which was substantial in benghazi and state department security?

>> well, i think those are the questions that i would suspect senator chambliss and dianne feinstein and their house counterparts are also going to be asking because they want to know the time line. they had five separate beyond warnings, five separate incidents, as senator feinstein has made very clear. and as we have been told. five separate incidents in benghazi against the british ambassador, against our own consulate in the months leading up to this. the state department was told about this. there's been plenty of testimony about that. so why did they leave our diplomats there, not better protected? why did they not shut it down? or beef it up and send in the military? those are questions that i think also have to be asked. and where are we at risk elsewhere in the world? senator, i would encourage you to jump in here and tell me because you know a whole lot more about this. >> and senator, could i just add to what andrea is asking because

it's critical, the security inaina inadequacy we know about now for our ambassador to be in benghazi on 9/11? >> it's pretty easy to look back now and say sure, he shouldn't have been there. the fact is that he -- the cia, number one, let me clear up a myth -- the cia does not provide any security. a lot of the american public, i think, thinks that's the case. security here was actually provided by the libyans, and that's normal. the host country provides security for all of our embassies and all of our consulates. as it turned out, they simply weren't capable. and andrea, you make a good point, and it's something that we talked with ambassador kennedy about yesterday who is a longtime career diplomat, very outstanding guy from the state department which said, look, you know. why aren't you guys thinking about other places? and he very clearly stated they are. and if we can't get the protection we need, we do have

no business there. so long range, that's going to be a problem. that doesn't solve the benghazi issue, but long range, you're right. >> mark halperin, jump in. >> senator, if i could ask you to put a little finer point you're saying about ambassador rice. are you saying that she has lied and the white house has lied when they've said that what she said on the sunday shows was based not on the white house political spin, as you've been saying, but specifically on what the intelligence community best sense of things was at the time? >> i'm not saying she lied. i'm just saying she didn't tell -- she put a softer touch on what the real facts were. that's not lying. she just didn't get out there and say, look, this is a terrorist attack. somebody screwed up. we've got to get to the bottom of it. that's where we were two days later, not five days later. and i think the american people would have been better served, and they would have a better feeling about what happened in benghazi if the white house had just been forthcoming very quickly.

and they knew by then more about what happened than what was being talked about. >> senator, back to a point that you and joe touched upon just a couple of minutes ago. given the level of ferocity, of the attack on the consulate, given the weapons involved, it was clearly planned. it was clearly a planned assault on that consulate. so given what happened and given in the aftermath the intel that was available, and we heard provided through ambassador rice, are we looking at a shocking lack of human intel capability on our part in eastern libya or throughout libya? >> well, you have to remember, this is a part of the world that we haven't had much of a presence in for decades under gadhafi. and our intelligence community did put some assets on the ground as quickly as possible. but the one question that i've asked is at the heart of what you just asked, and that is, we

are the best at what we do. and if we couldn't figure out that there were a group of bad guys planning to attack this consulate, why not? because we've always been able to put people in the right places to figure out those kinds of things. we knew, for example, that there were a lot of al qaeda operatives in libya training people and being trained themselves. yet we had no penetration to that. and unfortunately, we didn't know this attack was being planned. >> and finally, andrea mitchell, given everything going on including the inspector general for the cia launching an investigation into general petraeus's conduct on other -- in other areas, your thoughts on his testimony today. andrea? >> andrea? >> i'm sorry, i didn't fully hear the question. i think you were asking about the i.g. investigation, and that, we are told, is open-ended but is focused primarily on whether he used the resources

and the assets, you know, the security detail, all of the other resources of the agency to further his relationship. the relationship he has acknowledged with paula broadwell. and that has potential legal implications. they say the fbi has assured them that he did not misuse any intelligence. of course, it's open-ended. and if they find something, they will pursue it, but that is not specifically what they are looking in. senator chambliss -- saxby chambliss may know more about that in the questions he'll be asking today. >> senator chambliss, we'll be following it closely as i'm sure many americans are. thank you for being with us. always great to see you. >> you as well. >> you got the question there. >> saxby, i've got a feeling we're going to see you in atlanta when alabama takes on georgia. >> go, dogs. >> roll tide, baby. see you there. >> david gregory, thank you. >> you bet. lindsey graham and rogers and feinstein. we're going to cover all this benghazi and petraeus stuff.

>> david gregory, thanks very much. still ahead, actor bradley cooper takes us inside his latest role and donny, you say it's a good one. >> honestly, one of the best movies i have ever seen. if you're 80, if you're 20, and he is spectacular. >> wow! okay. >> the dust bowl filmmaker ken burns will be here to talk about his new film documenting what he calls the worst manmade ecological disaster in u.s. history. "morning joe" back in a moment. with the spark cash card from capital one, sven gets great rewards for his small business! how does this thing work? oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!!

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hemingway guy to survive the war and to be with the woman that he loves, katherine barkley. >> it's 4:00 in the morning, pat. >> and he does. he does. he survives the war. after getting blown up. he survives it. and he escapes to switzerland with katherine. you think he ends it there? no. she dies, dad. i mean, the world's hard enough as it is, guys. can't somebody say hey, let's be positive? let's have a good ending to the story? >> pat, you owe us an apology. >> mom, i can't apologize. i'm not going to apologize for this. you know what i will do? i will apologize on behalf of ernest hemingway because that's who's to blame here. >> yeah, have ernest hemingway call and apologize to us, too. >> i think i'm going to like it. that was a scene from the new movie "silver linings playbook." and joining us now, the star of the film, bradley cooper back on the show. nice to see you. >> it's been a long time. >> long hair. >> we're in the middle of shooting "hangover 3," your favorite trilogy. >> you think mika may actually

see this? >> i'm not going to hold my breath, joe. >> i'm going to see it. my husband and i are going to watch it. >> she's probably going to call it "silver bells." >> "hit and run" is your favorite movie, isn't it? >> and "a-list." >> you know what? that's when i like it, he'll know. >> that's true. that's true. >> exactly. >> i have a hunch. >> don't you hate suck-ups? >> yes. >> i hate suck-ups. >> i wouldn't mind a little bit. i don't know if "hate" is the right word. >> speaking of suck-ups, donny deutsch, you saw the movie. you said this was the "citizen kane" of our time. >> i was fortunate enough to be at the premiere. the movie is -- >> of course you were. >> wait a second. >> i'm talking about a movie here, all right? honestly, it is a wonderful movie. i would send my 25-year-old daughter, my 84-year-old dad, bradley is amazing. jennifer lawrence. a great human story. it's a grown-up movie.

i've got to tell you, i was blown away, not because bradley's here and he's great. i really mean that. >> thank you. >> i laughed, i cried, i sucked up nfor hours. donny did say it was an extraordinary movie, it's gotten great reviews. tell us about it. >> i don't know, it's a unique story. it's written by david o'russell. it's very philly centric. it's about a guy released from a mental institution after having a plea bargain with the courts, beat the hell out of a guy leaving with his wife. in the hospital he's diagnosed as being bipolar, and he had just never dealt with it his whole life. he moves back home and thinks he knows how to save his life, get his wife back, restraining order against him, get his job back, yet he's living with his parents, he's got no phone, no car and trying to put his life together. and then tiffany maxwell played by jennifer lawrence is another

woman who's got issues. her husband was just killed. he was a cop. and in order to deal with that, she's been sleeping with everybody at work. you know the story, guys. >> as old as time. >> and then -- but it's about these people that are, you know, hopefully we all can relate to. they're a little bit on the extreme emotionally. and yet they come together in an honest way. o'russell, all he cares about is authenticity. >> donny, where you going, man? >> what is the deal? you suck up and leave. >> is it a suck up and run? >> no, i was scheduled to leave and then bradley was coming and i loved the movie. >> we actually didn't really want to know. >> too much information. all right. >> thank you. >> have fun. >> let's look at a clip. >> another clip from the movie. >> you don't want me to keep talking? >> i'm having sex with everybody in the office. >> everybody? >> i was very depressed after tommy died. it was a lot of people. >> you don't have to talk about it. >> thanks.

>> how many were there? >> 11. >> wow. >> i know. >> i'm not going to talk about it anymore. >> okay. >> can i ask you one more question? were there any women? >> yes. >> really? >> yes. >> what was that like? >> hot. >> oh, my god. >> this is incredible. >> this is rich. >> do we have another clip? >> donny. >> i can't believe it. >> donny loves it, mika loves it. >> as a rule, i hate to second anything donny deutsch says, but i have seen the movie, and it is quite excellent. there's -- i think when you play somebody with a mental disability, the danger of making, like, a cartoon character of a crazy person, but there is a little subtlety here to the way you play it. >> but we're all sick. that's what's perfect. >> that's the point. >> you get it -- hit it right on the nose. i don't know if sick is the right word.

sick, yeah, we're all sick. i like it. >> why not? >> i got some notes of little miss sunshine which is to say totally totally dysfunctional family. >> you love them. >> and they celebrate their little -- their quirks and the fact they are a little bit nuts in certain ways but they rally around each other and you root for them. >> there's no sort of hollywood end i ending where all of a sudden everybody is healed at all. >> exactly. >> the family does help in coming together communicating. >> and the trick is to make the intensity normal and appealing. the whacked out eagles fan, the transference. >> this guy, pat, i played will take you through the whole movie. if it's too extreme, we're never going to get onboard. the movie starts out, he has issues. we have to win the audience back almost honestly with that because you're sort of sitting there going, wait a second. who is this guy? >> by the way, great reviews this morning in your hometown paper, the "boston globe." also this film, you're going to

love it. obviously we all know mike is a big ballroom dancer. >> oh, well. >> and we get some behind-the-scenes footage. bradley is doing some ballroom. >> mike an worked -- i don't know how you managed sitting with me. >> a lot of stamina. >> oh, my god. look at that. what are we looking at here? >> this is an idea mike came up with for jennifer and then he insisted on doing the routine himself and i kept saying, mike, i'm going to have to eventually do 0 it. no, just watch me. >> no stand in. >> that is actually us rehearsing. where did you get that? >> we have a guy. >> you can tell that we had no dance standards. that was us. >> that is proof right there. >> everybody is asking, by the way, about working with de niro but what about her? >> i love working with a university. it's interesting, an entire university.

>> you know what i meant. jennifer. sorry. >> wow. she's great. a great school. >> i think j.j. evans was there. he's in the dorm. >> she's great, though, right? >> jennifer laurence, we did did another movie together right afterwards. i love her. >> can we turn to politics? you watch "morning joe" a lot. talk about the election. how are you feeling? >> i mean, i feel good. who did you vote for? do you like to talk about it? >> i voted for mitt romney. >> you did? >> i voted for obama. are you surprised? >> yeah, i can't believe that. >> not real thrilled about it. >> because you're republican -- >> ron paul. more libertarian. small government guy. what about you. >> i voted for obama. i did. >> you won again. >> yeah, yeah. >> are you excited? >> i am excited, and i'm -- you know, i'm amazed at how quickly that election ended. it was almost -- you could even tell the news outlets didn't

know what to do almost. you have this whole build yum and then, bam, it happened so fast. >> what draws to you politics so much? what do you enjoy? >> well, i mean -- philadelphia -- a lot of cities are but -- i don't know. i grew up with a politically minded father and mother and then going to georgetown obviously almost ignited -- >> you're in the middle. >> clinton was in often and came often and living in d.c. for four years. it sounds cheesy but, you know, i think it's a very admirable profession. i think to actually give yourself over. and obama wrote about it in his book just about how sechless it is to become the president. your life ends. and now because of, you know, social media and how we're able to document people's lives, you realize how much that is true. how true that is. it really is true. >> it's incredible how long mitt romney has been running for president. >> let's hope that stops. >> painful. >> we'll take a break. >> "silver linings playbook."

>> did you say it looks like me? >> that's what i thought. >> that's what my mother says. >> he's bi-polar. >> he's very messed up. >> we all are. i can't wait to see it. i'm going to see it. >> if you see it, i'm going to fly and come back on. let's have a conversation about the movie. >> we'll do it. bradley cooper, great to see you. new jersey governor chris christie will be on the show. >> is he. >> he'll be here on "morning joe." have a good night. here you go. you, too.

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bradley can you move for a second? thanks. thanks. republican governors break ranks with mitt romney over his assessment of the presidential race. plus, richard joins us for the latest on the middle east. having you ship my gifts couldn't be easier. well, having a ton of locations doesn't hurt. and my daughter loves the santa.

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good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. 5:00 a.m. on the west coast. time to wake up, everyone, as you take a live look at new york city. back with us on set we have donny deutsch. the sexiest man alive. >> was he really because he bought it. what was the issue? >> you know what -- >> what did they say? >> every time we don't talk about it for five minutes, he coughs and he goes, sexiest man alive. it's unbelievable. it's needy. richard haass is here and we have mark halperin and mark meacham. we begin with a growing number of leading republicans trying to distance themselves from mitt romney's recent comments where he argued that president obama won re-election by offering, quote, gifts, or government services to minorities and young

voters. >> the president's campaign did was focus on certain members of his base coalition, give them extraordinary financial gifts from the government, and then work very aggressively to turn them out to vote. >> okay. so we're going to now show the response to this from some leading republicans. the only thing i'll say is where was this along the way? >> it was there. i mean, it was there. >> it's not like this is a revelation about romney. >> the 47% quote. he actually believed it. >> okay. >> and he wasn't just doing analysis. that was his, i would say, twisted view of what he views conservativism to be. you write off 47% and try to squeeze out 3%. it's just sick. >> i know this is going to sound

snarky but it's a lot easier to say now, but it is being said. bobby jindal came out strongly against romney's comments on wednesday and continued his criticism yesterday. take a listen. >> this is completely unhelpful. this is not where the republican party needs to go. look, we want -- if you want voters to like you, the first thing you've got to do is to like them first. and it's certainly not helpful to tell voters that you think their votes were bought. that's certainly not a way to show them you respect them, you like them. we need to stop talking down to voters. i truly believe people on food stamps, on government assistance don't want to be there. they're there because they don't have the ability to get better paying jobs. we need to grow the economy, give them the education, give them the opportunities to have a better quality of life. >> then we have senator marco rubio of florida who offered a carefully worded reaction to romney telling politico, quote, i don't want to rebut him point by point. i would just say to you, i don't believe that we have millions and millions of people in this country that don't want to work.

okay. and a former mississippi governor, haley barbour, suggesting the whole republican party needs to do some, well, soul-searching. take a listen. >> we've got to give our political organizational activity, you know, a very serious proc it tology exam. we need to look everywhere, is my point. >> yeah, but, you know what, i will say, and i don't hand you compliments often, but you've been saying this during the primary process it started. and now it seems to me that it's great to hear these gentlemen coming forward and speaking truth to what mitt romney said, but you it's just too easy right now. it should have been done in the primary process. >> it's like when i was talking about people in the conservative entertainment complex talking in ways that will never win. the suburbs of philadelphia,

bucks county, pennsylvania, or the i-4 corridor. in this case, donny deutsch, i said all along mitt romney's biggest problem wasn't that he was too conservative, it's that he didn't understand conservatism like margaret thatcher, the shopkeeper's daughter understood conservatism or ronald reagan, the alcoholic son that grew up in middle america who actually believed like i believe, like a lot of conservatives believe that if you want to help everybody, if you want to help the 100%, what you want to do is you want to fight hard for their individual freedoms and give them the ability. unshackle them from regulations, from high taxes, from centralized state. and that's the best way to move forward. we can have a debate over whether that's right or wrong. the problem is we didn't have that debate this time because mitt romney's view was such an insulated view of a guy who grew up rich and grew up in this insular world where his father

ran car companies and was governor of michigan. >> this is a pivotal point. i think bobby jindal probably said it best. you have to turn -- you have to marry conservatism and populism. they're not on other sides of the map. it's all of a sudden, no, we help the little guy because that's the american dream. it's not the opposite of the american dream as far as entitlements and as far as victims. and that's a pivot point. and the republicans that get it are going to be part of a new brand -- i was arguing about the republicans need to rebrand themselves. of course they do. a brand is a set of values and how you ar it particular late those values and the attributes you assign it. and it's very, very clear the demographic fait accompli of where this world is going, until you can shift what is the current view of republicanism into the populist articulation of conservatism, vis-a-vis the american dream, they will not get there. >> and, willie, it all starts at the top.

it really does start at the top. in presidential years, for better or worse, the guy you nominate or the woman you nominate to run your party, to be the presidential candidate is the one that runs the party. and we had a guy in the republican party that just did not think like thatcher. did not think lake reagan. did not think like donny is talking about. >> it's interesting all these governors held their tongues throughout the campaign and now they're hearing them. it's not just bobby jindal. it was bob mcdonald saying we need to be more flexible on the issue of taxes. haley barbour said in the same event we saw in that clip, he said we just can't be purists about everything. the question i have is how do you win general elections without abandoning your core principles? people saying we need to 0 soften on abortion as well. how do you move to a place where you get 51% of the electorate without giving up what you believe? >> what do you think, richard? >> it's actually healthy. what you want to see is a republican debate about ideas. you can't have the lessons of

why romney lost be about, quote/unquote, gifts. you can't have it all be about ground game and political tactics. that's a cop-out. it's like an army after losing a are war and you chalk it up to this or that sideshow. republicans have to have a serious debate about ideas. what is their view of the economy now given what's going on? what is the proper role of government in this society? what is the role of the united states in the world? what did we learn from iraq and afghanistan? let's have a serious debate, but let's not chalk it up to this or that democratic tactic or this or that failure to get the vote out. that's avoiding any serious learning of lessons here. >> to jon meacham -- >> i would love to ask what thomas jefferson would do. >> what would jefferson do? having said that, i also -- how do we -- what's the moving forward conversation to have? because this, again, just shows how bad the candidate was or how much he didn't fit the conversation that needed to be had all along which, by the way, was a failure on both sides in

the campaign. jon? >> you know, what's fun sometimes in life and in politics is when you can make a vice a virtue. in this case the fact romney was not a good candidate and has now said this which totally ratifies his 47% comment, those of us who want him to think he was just talking about tactics, that he was late at night and he didn't really mean it, well, we were wrong. he really meant it. and i think the republicans to some extent are lucky in that they now have a total -- to use donny's term, words, by the way, i never thought i would say in that order -- it is a pivot point. you now have a nominee who absolutely embodies and has now said again something that you can play off of. you can define yourself against. you can become -- i would try to use the term something like i'm a 53% republican. >> we want to get to this story, gaza is on the verge of all-out war developing over 0 the past 24 hours in response to repeated

rocket attacks from hamas. operatives in israel have begun mobilizing 30,000 reserve troops including armored tanks. overnight the fight iing did no let up. explosions rocked gaza city as israeli warplanes targeted hamas targets. hamas vowing retaliation for the death of its military chief two days ago is escalating missile attacks deeper into israel. the jerusalem post reports israeli air force has fired a rocket near the home of hamas' prime minister. no one was reportedly injured. for the first time since the gulf war, more than 20 years ago, air raid sirens were triggered in the commercial capital of tel aviv sending residents running for cover. so far the long-range missiles fired from gaza have landed without damage there. yesterday israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu warned that the military operation could significantly widen. >> no government would tolerate a situation where nearly a fifth

of its people live under a constant barrage of rockets and missile fire. and israel will not tolerate the situation. i hope that hamas and the other terror organizations in it gaza got the message. if not, israel is prepared to take whatever action is necessary to defend our people. >> while egypt's prime minister visited gaza today in a show of solidarity with hamas, israel agreed to pause attacks, but we keep hearing of more coming from there. rich artd, your thoughts? >> it's possible it this escalates, but it's hard for me to see how anybody benefits. israel got out of gaza. israel is a first world country, a first world economy. it doesn't want rockets raining down. it would be like rockets raining down on rockefeller center. they want to move beyond this. also, this brings into play the israeli/egyptian treaty this brings into play jordan. >> so the question is, why --

why did hamas choose to start firing rockets into israel the way they did? >> i think for hamas -- i think this for hamas is station identification. this is what hamas does. this is how it differentiates itself. it hasn't been able to deliver the goods at home to the palestinian people in gaza. this galvanizes its base. it shows the difference that hamas, quote/unquote, is doing something. it has credentials unlike the west bank palestinians who are seen as corrupt and not really offering a palestinian future. >> so they just started firing missiles into israel. >> station identification for hamas. and what they now -- also hamas is less isolated. a year ago they would shoot missiles -- two years ago -- and hosni mubarak and others would say stop. now suddenly hamas is close to egypt. >> so how do we pressure egypt? they want billions from us. they want billions from the imf. >> well, that's the way you do

it. the egyptians also have a stake in this not getting out of hand. egypt doesn't want the relationship with israel to break down. egypt doesn't want to forfeit its relationship with us. they have the $2 billion annually. >> the imf is not going to give them the money if they are seen as -- >> exactly. >> sponsors of hamas, are they? >> what we have to make clear is you are no longer a party. you have to rein in people. >> is the president passing that message along? >> i would certainly hope so. an entire relationship -- the age of unconditional american relationships with a lot of these regimes is over. the president, remember a few months ago during the campaign was asked in the telemundo interview, do you consider egypt an ally or adversary and he said neither? what we have done, we have ended the era of conditional relationships. it will depend how they treat their own people at home,

whether they act responsibly beyond their borders. this is exactly the future of the middle east. >> i just want to clairify. there was no triggering event specifically for hamas to start raining missiles down on israeli civilians? >> this has been building up over the last few weeks and months. it's, again, a self-definition thing for hamas. when we come back, let's make a deal. new jersey governor chris christie joins us on set. and president of the american federation of teachers randy weingarten here to explain the landmark education reform. still ahead, historian and award winning filmmaker ken burns will be here as well. first, bill karins with a check on the weekend forecast. bill? mika, mother nature is giving us a break at least on the east coast and the middle of the country. the west coast not so lucky. looks like your time to get rainy, stormy weather as we go throughout the weekend and the holidays. on and off showers around los angeles and a batch of moderate rain heading into san francisco. san jose to san francisco probably one of the wettest

areas of california as we go throughout your morning commute today and look at los angeles. a chance of rain the next three days. the rain will be moving out and the weather will improve during the day on sunday. in other words many areas of the west a chance for damp weather but it's a great looking weekend. and what you have today is pretty much what you're going to see all weekend long. notice the weather pattern doesn't change. temperatures continue to be seasonable in many areas of the country and there's no big storms heading to the east. things are looking nice as we head through the weekend and even towards next week. i'll have those details coming up. thanksgiving less than a week away, and the tree is now up. it will be lit november 28th out there live on the plaza. some great artists will perform, too.

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top ten mitt romney scapegoats. number ten, the ancient sumarians who invented arithmetic. people willing to get a romney/ryan face tattoo. riding high and living low 0, my friend. actual goats. number six, congressman todd akin's biology teacher. number four, this guy right here, that guy, there's paul ryan. hey, buddy. number two, the republican party for nominating him. ouch. ouch. oh. oh. what a scorcher. look out. and the number one mitt romney

scapegoat, shirtless fbi agent, uh had-oh. >> disturbing. joining us now the most counter intuitive -- >> what's going on? i take offense to that. >> i took the brunt of that, i think. >> you don't know who we're talking about. >> exactly. >> don't you take a shot, brad. >> exactly. >> we are talking about chris christie. you're the only republican around here. >> the governor and i are going to organize. joining us now the republican governor of new jersey, governor chris christie, and president of the american federation of teachers randy weingarten and bradley cooper. >> yeah. thank you to letting me stick around. >> great movie, by the way. have you seen it? >> i was watching it. >> looks fantastic. >> today the governor and the teachers union will announce a landmark contract offering merit pay bonuses to the teachers of newark so we can now, the three of us, or the four of us, or the

five of us even, actually get along on something here. >> i love it. >> when it comes to education which is one of the hot button issues the past two years on this show but this is great news. >> so talk about what happened. >> what happened was the folks in newark, the superintendent and the president of the teachers union wanted to do something different. randy and i were supportive of that. we control the newark state district, the state does. we've taken it over so we're the negotiators. i think we've all decided we need to do something different and not only does it provide merit bonuses and provide advancement based on merit but involves the teachers in the evaluation process as well. and so everybody got around the table and compromise d with eac other and now have created a system where it's not no longer just seniority or degrees received but now it's how you perform in the classroom. and that evaluation is not just done by the administration but teachers involved as well. everybody has a stake in it and i think it's going to improve the quality of education across

the city of newark. >> so what you have here as the governor said is that you have both experienced matters and what you do matters. it's funny to me that people have focused on the one $5,000 bonus as opposed to the comprehensiveness of this new system. so what has been aligned is the work that you do every day. the experience that you carry into the classroom, and input at the school level so that this is a dynamic new contract that's fair -- that's fair to the teachers but is good for kids, and that's why it was, when people looked at it, that's why they voted it up by more than 60%. but i want to just say one other thing which is that in all of this sandy happened. and the governor did an extraordinary job in terms of all the work in new jersey. and, you know, this is the way government should work.

whether it's a collective bargaining table or whether there is a disaster, you have lots of public employees who every single day are trying to make a difference in the lives of kids, the lives of the community. and here you have -- we worked hard at the table to come up with something that was good for newark. >> so, chris, what are you doing here? you're hanging out with people in the teachers union, you're striking deals with the democratic legislation. >> it's not going to work with the base. >> you are being nice to the president of the united states who is coming to help people who have been rach of ravaged by a historic storm. what are you doing? >> my job. listen, when randy and i first talked about this, i guess it was last february in washington. we were kind of at a stall point with the locals in terms of their negotiating. i said if you really want to do something different, if you really want to try to put merit into the system, i'm willing to negotiate with you. and we would do what we needed to do. and i think that she looked at me and said if you're willing, i'm willing. so i think, joe, what we're

doing is we're showing people that i didn't abandon my principles. randy didn't abandon her principles or the local but what we found a boulevard of compromise that exists between compromising principles with neither one of us would ever do and getting everything you want which you're never going to get. >> you're never going to get. >> there's always a boulevard between there. sometimes broad, sometimes narrow. the job of a leader is to find the way up the boulevard and make progress for the people of your state. >> because at the end of the day it was about every time we had a problem at the table, it was about what is going to work for the kids in newark and what the governor and the superintendent understood and joe degrasso, the leader, is an amazing leader of the union. but what we understood was what's going to work can enable teachers who we need to recruit, retain, and support to do their jobs for kids. and long term it's not just individual teachers but it's the

community of newark. >> congratulations to you both, honestly. >> that's the other thing we've been talking about all along is that you want to reward good teachers. you want to reward teachers who excel in the classroom. this gives us a way to do it. i have to mention we wouldn't have been able to do this without mark zuckerberg and the $100 million grant from facebook that we raised money to match. the fact of the matter is these bonuses will be paid from the money that mark contributed almost two years ago now. and this is what he wanted. when he said to me when we got this together was, governor, use this to try to make a contract in newark that will be an example for the country. and when it was voted and affirmed this week, i have a text from mark saying thank you. you kept your end of the bargain. i'm keeping mine. >> that's the third part of the equation. both sides getting along and the corporate as well. this is such an incredible example of what can be done. >> public/private partnership. unions coming together. it's fantastic.

bradley, you're a philly guy. it's a suburb of jersey. >> oh! >> aren't you glad you stayed? seriously. poor thing. >> didn't you know the name of the show is good morning trenton. >> it is. >> the best is twh you're in california and everybody says they're in philly and when you ask the follow-up, well, cherry hill. you're not from philly. i have a question, so you make this decision, you guys come together, logistically speaking, what's the time line to be instituted? immediately? >> look, it's a five-year contract, two years are gone already so there's a bunch of retroactive pay and they are working on it as we speak. the implementation is a really good question. the implementation is probably more important than the actual signing of the contract. really truly in schools every single day there's going to be these new school improvement committees. we're going to focus on how we not just recruit and retain teachers but how we mentor them, how we support them.

it's something going on in a classroom, how you change that immediately so you don't wait for test scores at the end of the year. it's a really dynamic system. the newark teachers actually have more voice than they've ever had before. >> right now -- >> i was going to say psychologically, too, oh, someone has my back out there. >> and they have a role in it. they have a say in the way the teachers are evaluated and now principals feel like there is a way to reward the excellent teacher and let them know if you are highly effective, you prepare, you update, you make a difference in these kids' lives, you're going to get paid in a way that teachers deserve to be paid. >> i'm sorry. >> back in school when you we went -- you took a class where you knew that you never raised your hand, you would never be called on so you would be fine. if you knew your teacher was the kind of guy or woman who would call on you, you would be prepared and that work will pay

off. >> it's also for -- >> every level, it all starts with teachers. >> but it's also the comprehensive nature of this new plan because it's, you know, it is every single person who, you know, you're aligning, evaluation and experience because our job is for all kids, not just for some kids. and then the same thing i want to give props to newark as well because the teacher village was also created at the same time. so there's more teacher housing going on. we're doing more stuff with literacy. you and i have had this conversation. it really does take a community to actually raise children. joe? >> governor, a couple of quick questions. how is jersey doing after the storm? i'll tell you, we flew in last night. it's still depressing and flew over parts of long island. just pitch black. it is a sad, sad scene out there and it is cold. >> it's the worst -- it's the

worst storm ever to hit the state of emergennew jersey in i history. we have thousands and thousands of people that are homeless who lost their homes during the storm. now we're past the immediate crisis. power is back on to all new jerseyans. clean water. 98% of our schools are open. the only ones not open are the ones that were destroyed. other districts are picking up the slack for the kids to go to other districts. and then we have our roads open. we're still working on mass transit. the initial crisis is over but now it's going to be about -- >> it's the long slog of trying to rebuild. >> trying to get people's homes back. i tell you, i walked the jersey shore. what's happening is just extraordinary. >> and you have a great partnership with the president. >> he's done everything i've asked him to do so far. i have no complaints about that. at the end of the day, it's going to have to be a partnership because no one state could rebuild itself after this kind of calamity. this is what the federal government is supposed to be

there for in my view, instances like this, where no one state could do it. this is part of the reason the states created the federal government, remind everybody. the states created the federal government. that's one of the reasons why. >> this is not something that -- i mean, whatever he's doing, and i'm glad you feel that everyone is coming to the table, it's not going to be enough. >> no. congress needs to come to the table now, too. as you know there will need to be a supplemental bill and money appropriated for the states to get this done. >> and get people back on their feet. so we've been talking about the republican party for some time and the failings of our party this morning. we've been talking about mitt romney's most unfortunate conference call yesterday where he talked about barack obama winning because he gave, quote, gifts to minority groups. you're seen as a leader. do you agree with bobby jindal, it was a terrible thing to say and it was said terribly? >> yeah, sure. listen, i think the bottom line of what the conversation was, i was in lass vegas yesterday with the governors and what we all said was that it's time to pivot

and move on. the leaders of the republican party in america give you the republican governors and one of the reasons why you have 30 republican governors in america and why we're the only organization to add republican strength, house lost members, senate lost members, we lost the presidency. we went up from 29 to 30 republican governors is because people see us getting things done like this. getting things done for people. and that's what we have to emphasize and talk about. i don't think this is a core philosophical examination we have to go through. what this is, is about doing our jobs. and people expect that if they give you the privilege of serving. do your job. >> so explain to voters who are listening out there to what mitt romney said. explain why he was so wrong in his statement. >> you can't expect to be a leader of all the people and be divisive. you have to talk about themes, policies that unite people. and play to their aspirations and their goals and their hopes for their family and their

neighbors. and i always think this is scapegoating after elections. when you lose, you lost. someone asked me, why did mitt romney lose? because he got got less votes than barack obama. that's why. and the fact of the matter is more people in the country decided the president was the right way to go. i voted for mitt romney. the bottom line is we lost. now what weigh need to do as leaders of our party is pivot and get back to our jobs. and if we do our jobs well, people will put us back into office. and if we don't, they won't. >> is it time for mitt romney to move on and stop having conference calls? >> that's up to him. listen, mitt romney is a friend of mine. i understand he is very upset about having lost the election and very disappointed. i've never run for president. we've lost elections. i've lost elections but never for the presidency. i'm sure it stings terribly. >> but it's not helpful, right? >> of course not, joe, but he's a good man and he will find his level. and i think it's still a little raw. so do i wish he hadn't said those things? of course not.

but on the other hand i'm not going to bury the guy for it. >> okay, and randy, should we be looking for more examples of what you and governor christie did? is this possibly the future evaluation and teacher bonuses? >> the import of this is you can solve problems through collective bargaining. if people are willing to get to the table and actually work things out, that is the best way to actually make schools better. >> and bradley cooper, we're going to get pictures of mika actually watching your movie from beginning to end. and we're going to test her to see if she can get the title right. just the title. >> oh, god. it's going to be fun. i can't wait to see this movie. >> what's the name of the movie? >> no. there's a little bit of all of us. >> what's the name of the movie? >> governor chris christie and randi weingarter in.

"silver lines playbook" is in theaters now. >> my daughter is going to think i'm so cool that i was on set with bradley cooper. you set me for the whole weekend. >> if only one direction was here you would be complete. >> a cool index because of you. it was one of the worst man made ecological disasters in american history. filmmaker ken burns takes us next inside the dust bowl next on "morning joe." i don't spend money on gasoline. i am probably going to the gas station about once a month. last time i was at a gas station was about...i would say... two months ago. i very rarely put gas in my chevy volt. i go to the gas station such a small amount that i forget how to put gas in my car. [ male announcer ] and it's not just these owners giving the volt high praise. volt received the j.d. power and associates appeal award two years in a row.

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it was just unbelievable. it would blister your face. it would put your eyes out. well, i guess i can't describe it. it was just -- it was just constant. just that steady blow of dirt. >> as far as you could see there was dust all coming right towards you. this giant wall just coming towards you. and you still had the feeling whether you would admit it that something was going to run over you and just crush you. >> that was a clip from "the dust bowl" a new pbs documentary

directed by ken burns. ken also co-wrote the complementary book to the film "the dust bowl." an illustrated story. brian shactman who was up way too early back with us as well. you look ebbs haused. your eyes are red. seriously -- >> that's a good way -- >> you look like you've been through hell. >> it was good. >> you did a great job. >> a work of art, by the way. >> the way you do 0 it. >> exactly. >> but i want to talk to mr. burns, the pride of hamster college. >> perfect. that's why we have you here. so tell us about the film. it looks incredible. >> this is the worst man made ecological disaster. when we plowed up grass land that should have never been plowed up in the southern plains, buffalo fwras that held the soil, set down its roots five feet to hold the moisture. we expanded the homestead acts and folks got the greedy with the industrialized agriculture. they turned over the soil. they had some great, great, great wet years. they planted more and more, larger than the size of ohio. ohio. that ever important state of

ohio. and then all of a sudden the drought came in and the winds blew and it would pick up -- it wasn't just one storm. it was hundreds of storms over a ten-year apocalypse period. ships wouldn't come in. franklin roosevelt went like this and had oklahoma on his fingertips of his desk in the oval office n. one day one storm moved more dirt than in the ten years it took to excavate the panama cam and people were suffering from dust pneumonia. kids were dying. it was an amazing holocaust that we forget about and this could happen again because we're -- we have the drought right now, climate change. this was a specific man made disaster. climate change now intensifies out of storms like sandy as the governor knows, and it intensifies the drought that's going on, you know, right now in the same section of the country. >> now, more than ever, i think it's really hit us and hit people who, you know, usually watch these store chris unfold

on the periphery outside of their zone of comfort. now we know. mike barnicle, you've seen the film. >> i've seen about 45 minutes of it. that's the question, though, ken. a decade long, you know, rape of the land up through the gut of the country. that impacted the entire country. and god bless you, sadly for our culture, this is now a way for too many people to view history. >> that's right. >> and to regard history. but how does it happen that an event of this nature and of this length, of this duration, and as you've indicated franklin roosevelt could sweep the dust off the desk in the oval office. how does it happen we are so ignorant? >> it is now a paragraph at best in a textbook or a cooperation of a photograph. we just think grapes of wrath, that's all about the central valley of california and all the troubles they had there.

but the folks that stayed and tried to make a go of it over this ten-year period, it's amazing. we found the last survivors of it. these were kids and teenagers during that period and their memories are no less accurate, no less searing and in some ways more poignant when they describe as if it happened yesterday the death of a little sister who they haven't seen since early 1935 who was barely 2 years old. and then you realize as faulkner said, history is not was but it. and if you can access these memories, if you have the great gift of being present at express memory as we did in world war ii film, you suddenly go, my god, this is what it was like and then you can bore down, open up and find out what happened. >> brian? >> it's true. i was a historyed over it in tw. prohibition in the sense that there was stuff i hadn't seen and how difficult was it to find the footage, and did you uncover stuff that had never been seen?

>> we asked folks -- i made appeals on all the pbs stations in those five state regions of oklahoma and texas and new mexico and colorado and kansas, the epicenter of the dust bowl and also the central valley. i asked for their pictures and home movies and for their memories. them. the united states government when the president of the united states got oklahoma on his fingertips, you are going to go out and say what's going on and toumt it. and news reel companies went out. that's what we do. this is the great fun of it, are the detective work of finding those extraordinary people. there's no ordinary people when you see what floyd cohen, the guy with the eye patch you just saw, what he went through, the loss of his baby sister. amazing. this is about a natural disaster over ten years that was man made and, therefore, avoidable. but it's also a human story of heroic perseverance because you look at these people and no pun intended the grit, the ability to withstand. they were even bigger gamblers because of the dryness and they were always called next year people meaning if it was

terrible this year, next year will be better. to do that ten years in a row, that tests your resolve. if the storm coming through 100 times a year and you can't even -- you wake up in the morning and the only clear place is the pillow where your head had been. you clear off the table and by lunch you can draw pictures on your dining room table again and it's killing your kids, it takes a lot of guts to stay. >> and you capture the human side of this with these great characters, these great story tellers, these great faces. >> you can tell the top down story. >> i can't wait. it premieres on pbs sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern, 7:00 central. everybody here, by the way, red sox -- red sox? >> we're undefeated so far this season. >> there is that. ken burns, thank you very much. we're back in just a moment with much more "morning joe."

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how does that look, guys, that mustache on joe? >> i don't like that one. >> not so good. brian? >> too much like -- i don't know, a latin american dictator. >> exactly. >> okay. we have an update on slash the stash campaign to raise money for 0 epilepsy research. you recall david axelrod is putting his 40-year-old mustache back on the chopping block this time promising to shave it off live on "morning joe." how gross is that? if we can raise, if we can raise $1 million for cure. a nongovernment organization dedicated to funding epilepsy research. joe has pledged to donate $10,000. donald trump and mark cuban have gotten into the action, if you can believe both those guys have been incredibly generous. after just over a week of raising money, cure is almost halfway there with over $482,000 raised. come on. we can make this happen. you can make a donation today at

slash the stache. raise money for cure is an inkr incredible organization doing a lot of good in looking for the cure to epilepsy. the best of late night is next on "morning joe." (splashing)... (child screaming underwater)... (underwater noises). some people put everything intotheir name on the door, and their heart into their community.

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general petraeus scandal, you may have a little bit of trouble keeping track of all the names. >> it's kind of hard. >> last night stephen colbert had a solution. imagine it's a soap opera and you call it generals hospital. and he had a special guest stop by to talk about the plot. >> oh, this is far from over, stephen. >> susan lucci! >> oh, yes. and there's more. general petraeus has developed amnesia and can't remember that he's pregnant. by his own evil twin who is in a coma and is my lover.

>> that doesn't make any sense? >> how dare you! >> how did you do that from over there? >> don't you remember? i was in a boating accident, and now i have telekinisis just like general petraeus. >> how does she do that? >> i have no idea. >> she is amazing. >> up next, what did we learn. ♪

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choose unlimited rewards with 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day! what's in your wallet? welcome back. what we learned today. brian? >> if you want anyone to talk to you, don't come on the day bradley cooper comes on the set. >> and he thinks i'm in a good mood. brian shactman, you do not know me. >> mike, what did you learn? >> well, i learned that, you know, we have bradley cooper here today. we have chris christie. incredible. and brian shactman. >> yes, way too early, you look horrible after doing it. >> governor christie? >> bradley cooper wants to help us rebuild the jersey shore. >> i have danielle and victoria here, it t.j.'s nieces. t.j. our director. girls, how do